BBC Radio Shakespeare: As You Like It (Dramatized)

BBC Radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard.

As always (and I mean always) the BBC Radio Shakespeare knocks another performance right outta the park! I adore these performances, and As You Like It is one of my favorites. Helena Bonham Carter is a superstar, and the entire performance leaves nothing to be desired. If you haven't discovered this performance series, you should!!!

The Hellion and the Highlander

Lady Averill Mortagne learned to control her fierce temper as a young girl. But if her father insists on parading her before one more English lord who looks askance at her flame-colored hair, she'll simply scream! Her only respite is the time she spends with Kade Stewart, the wounded Scot her brother brought home from the Crusades. Who could have imagined a Highland warrior would be the only gentleman around?

For the genre, this was very good. No, it isn't classic literature, but no one expects that of an historical romance. However, what really hooked me with these books was the narrator. Palka has such a melodic voice and pleasant accent - I literally use these books to fall asleep when I have insomnia.

Now, not that the stories are boring, far from it. The first time through, I had a difficult time turning them off. If you are a fan of Hannah Howell, you will love these three books. They are very typical, formulaic Highland romances, nothing terribly original, but again, if you are wanting a mind-numbing, heart-warming, gently erotic sip of passionate escape, that is exactly what you will get from this series.

Clockwork Angel: The Infernal Devices, Book 1

When 16-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

I began reading the first Mortal Instruments book to screen the series for my son (12) and enjoyed them enough to read them along with him. I wanted to listen to this spin-off series because it included my favorite character, Magnus, and promised to reveal the much alluded to Will Herondale.

The original series is YA - good reading, but definitely YA. This series is not. While appropriate for a young-ish audience, it is absolutely not juvenile. I have enjoyed this series twice as much as the Mortal Instruments novels, and they were very good for their specific genre.

Without giving any spoilers, I will say that the characters are very well developed, the story engaging and fun, yet rarely predictable or light...this is not a fairytale sort of series, and I do not anticipate a happy-go-lucky ending for all (if any).

The narration is very good - it gave me a moment's pause, the switch back and forth from male to female narrator (but not in a dramatized way, they take turns with chapters) but it works, and both narrators are very effective and captivating.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone has Asperger's Syndrome, a condition similar to autism. He doesn't like to be touched or meet new people, he cannot make small talk, and he hates the colors brown and yellow. He is a math whiz with a very logical brain who loves solving puzzles that have definite answers.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, and spoiler FREE - I was assigned this as required reading for a graduate course, and fully expected to hate it, as I assumed it would be reminiscent of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, one of my least favorite books of all time. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a well-written, intriguing, engaging, and very REAL story. I work with learning disabled teens and adults on a daily basis, and Christopher is as real as they come. Unlike the unbelievable and awful Holden, Christopher truly comes to life in this story, thanks to both wonderful storytelling and great narration. The characters are fully developed, the writing style is smooth and three-dimensional, and the story is engaging and adept. I highly recommend this book.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

One of the best-known stories in American culture, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has stirred the imagination of young and old alike for over 100 years. Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married, Alice In Wonderland), fresh from filming one of this year’s most anticipated films, The Dark Knight Rises, lends her voice to this uniquely American fairy tale.

First of all, this is the REAL Wizard of Oz, so even if you didn't like the movie, give it a try. Baum's classic tale is classic for a reason; it tells a clever, insightful, and important story...all wrapped up in a disguise of fun and humor.

Second, Anne Hathaway does an amazing job of bringing the characters to life, making the story seem to play out inside your head, and never losing her focus. She should do more audibles!

Last, this is the kind of thing you can play anywhere. Turn it into a family activity on a long trip, listen to a chapter per night with the kids at bedtime, or enjoy it all by yourself and remember the joy of childhood wonder. If your earphones slip free of your device while this is playing, you aren't going to be embarrassed or offend anyone nearby.

If you ever read Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" alongside the German folktale upon which it was based, you may appreciate the occasional worth of plagiarism. Irving takes a silly story, one with no apparent worth, and gently reshapes it into a timeless fable.

This audible just as blatantly plagiarizes, but in the opposite direction. Poe's fabulous tale of revenge for the sake of pride becomes nothing more than an empty and trite bit of fluff. I could go on and on... let's just leave it at this: If you are already quite familiar with Poe's work and this story, if you would like only to hear the performance and an alternative interpretation of the work (however awful) then this is worth the minimal time & monetary investment (99 cents and 25 minutes shouldn't even leave you a day late or a dollar short).

However, if you are new to Poe or The Cask of Amontillado, perhaps a student hoping to have your assigned reading read to you on the commute to school, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, DO NOT TAKE THIS AS ANY SORT OF ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF POE'S WORK. Download Audible's straightforward reading of the work, as it is equally inexpensive, both to your pocketbook and your grade... especially if you should mistake Luccia for Lucchese on a Literature exam.

Dexter Is Delicious

Dexter is experiencing some major life changes - don't we all? And they're mostly wrapped up in the eight-pound curiosity that is his newborn daughter. Family bliss is cut short, however, when Dexter is summoned to investigate the disappearance of a 17-year-old girl who has been running with a bizarre group of goths who fancy themselves to be vampires. As Dexter gets closer to the truth of what happened to the missing girl, he realizes they are not really vampires so much as cannibals.

I love Dexter, and for me Nick Landrum provides Dexter's perfect voice. He sounds like a psychopath, yet his voice is compelling and enjoyable. Not only has Landrum performed so admirably as the dark un-hero of Jeff Lindsay's wonderfully terrible novels, he has done so through the entire series and therefore embodies Dexter for many listeners. The switch to Lindsay himself as narrator is jarring and wrong. I understand an author wishing to give voice to his character and/or story; do so from the beginning or go back to the beginning and offer an author-narrated alternative for new readers. Do not, please I beg do NOT, take away the voice of my beloved character and replace him with a man who sounds completely different in every way. Lindsay sounds less confident than Landrum, much older, and far too "normal" to represent Dexter fairly. To top that off, the story is frustrating and stale, the Dexter series apparently having reached that point where the author begins faltering with the continued growth and development of the main character. The book was not bad, however, in comparison to the previous novels and the performances of those books, it falls short.

Why we think it’s a great listen: The most celebrated performance in all of Audible’s history, The Help has nearly 2,000 5-star reviews from your fellow listeners. We hear the print book’s not bad, either. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another.

This book grips readers from the first moments, and the performance is amazing. The narrators bring the already rich and vibrant characters to life with almost mesmerizing force. The story unfolds as smoothly and vividly as a live performance on Broadway. One of the best books I have read (or listened to) in months, my only complaint concerns the ending: I felt the wrap-up appeared somewhat sloppy, like a frayed hem with a few loose threads dangling. Not to mislead - I greatly enjoyed the book and the ending was adequate, just not spectacular. This book is definitely worth spending 18 hours glued to your listening device.

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